An amazing set of work with so much cerebral content- I could never be so inventive – the overall individuality of creative themes was amazing. I found the Project Space to be a hugely significant component. Richard’s CC film was so well worth watching – made up a little bit for not seeing an actual piece this time. I enjoyed all the sampling and watching the Daisy Collingridge character come alive – a beautiful piece of craftsmanship

Diana Springall

Diana Springall is one of Britain's best-known textile artists. Her 40-year career in textiles includes appointments as a panel lecturer at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and chairman of both the Embroiderers' Guild and the Society of Designer Craftsmen.

Ctrl/Shift takes shifts and changes as its theme; in particular it is centred on artists whose practice is or has transformed, in small or large ways, especially towards expressions of innovation in textile art. These shifts may be around changing attitudes to control; the introduction of new materials and techniques; and/or the impact of innovative and contemporary themes and ideas, and evolving technologies.

The exhibition comprises over thirty artworks by twentyfive artists, including carefully selected outcomes from a collaboration between three artists who reflected on and were inspired by each other’s work.

The exhibition concept has been developed in partnership with the 62 Group and independent curator Liz Cooper.

Exhibiting Artists

Imogen Aust

Imogen is interested in the use of visual and written instructions which are all around us when learning craft skills in workshops. This work is inspired by the explicit Health & Safety instruction in the signage around machinery in workshop environments.

Caroline Bartlett

Fragile and transient, cloth encapsulates ideas concerned with the regenerative and degenerative processes of life. As clothing, it witnesses routines, rituals and intimacies. The clothing imprinted porcelain occurs as a deposit of memory.

Heather Belcher

Fugitive ClothMaterials:Hand made wool felt and porcelain slipTechniques:Hand made felt and fired porcelain

This piece of work explores new materials. Felt ‘beakers’ have been soaked in porcelain slip and ‘fired’, concealing their original state. One remaining, unfired beaker lays camouflaged against its’ protective felt base, gently aware of the fossilised fragile pieces to the left.

Eszter Bornemisza

After having created quilts for many years Eszter Bornemisza needed a shift, a change leading to new directions. She started experimenting with sewing on newspaper to achieve lacy transparent look while still keeping her theme of locations and maps.

Lucy Brown

A series of sculptures exploring the taboo subject of female body/facial hair. Using those make-up cases and tools which have an association with the mouth, upper lip and chin area, Lucy Brown weaves human hair, some of it her own, to replace, envelop, entrap these female ritual objects.

Penny Burnfield

Seeking a change from work where ‘the idea’ dictates the visual qualities of the art, Penny allowed form and colour to take precedence. A folding structure evolved into abstracted mountain ranges. She is interested in the parallel between the compulsion of mountaineers to climb despite the risks and the artist’s compulsion to create something new – even when they do not know how to make it.

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Nigel Cheney

I have taken the Edward Thomas poem ‘Lights Out’, as the starting point for this piece. This shifted research from responding to historical archives and to depict a fictitious character from the First World War lost in the thoughts that overwhelm him in the moments before his death.

Daisy Collingridge

Meet Clive. Clive is part of an ongoing collection of ‘Squishys’ created by Daisy that represent a distinct departure from her fashion design background. She continues to use fashion design techniques and materials but the outcome has shifted.

Isobel Currie

In her continuing exploration of stitching in three dimensions, Isobel is revisiting Fly stitch. This new work represents a significant design shift away from the parallel lines of stitch and geometrical order of her previous work.

Flox den Hartog Jager

After working on the Creation, inspired by the Apocalypse, Flox’ attention shifted from the beginning to the end of history, when God decides to a big CRTL/Alt/Delete, taking control of his creation and deleting everything that has gone wrong.

Catherine Dormor

Tailor’s tacks mark the fabric in preparation for its transformation into a garment: as individual stitches they mark the points for the darts, the buttons, the sleeve. Brought together here in a multitude, the markers become marks across the surface of the fabric, the loops spring and twist out of control as they slip off the machine foot.

Dawn Dupree

Dawn Dupree’s new work explores the process of change and transformation. Influenced by her personal and clinical experience as a psychotherapist Dawn’s work is concerned with the internal landscape, our embodied experience, intersubjectivity and unconscious processes.

Caren Garfen

This artwork was inspired by a 2017 Ch4 documentary ‘Wasting Away’. Journalist Mark Austin states that “there are just 202 NHS beds in the whole of the UK for young people with eating disorders”, as against 1.2 million sufferers.

Emily Jo Gibbs

The Value of making is a new body of work, created to celebrate the skill, dexterity and the creative problem solving of people who make things. Ane Christensen’s go to tool is a deep framed piercing saw, Gibbs was thrilled to observe the saws worn handle and the masking tape on the tightening screw, these details put you in the hands of the maker, but on the wall above Ane’s work bench is a magnetic file rack over which are looped her facemask and earplugs, this composition proved irresistible

Ann Goddard

This is Ann Goddard’s initial response to Jae Maries’ original piece ‘Turbulent Seas’, in the collaborative project ‘Triple Reaction’. The small collaged constructions developed from investigating Jae’s process. Observation of the way in which Jae combines layers of fabric, scraps and stitch, obscuring them with paint and gestural paint marks, informed Ann’s decision to recycle mixed media scraps.

Joanna Kinnersly-Taylor

Recast takes as its theme the shifting dynamic of interior space. As we move through our environment, so light changes and our sense of space alters. Using multiple pieces of cloth in a grid format, has enabled Joanna to work on a larger scale than usual. Whilst maintaining a sense of individual compositions, there is also an overall rhythmic structure.

Hannah Lamb

Inspired by archival research into katagami (Japanese dyeing stencils), Hannah devised a series of textile experiments that investigate different combinations of natural dyeing, printing and stitching using a wide variety of fabrics. The resulting samples not only demonstrate technical knowledge but also reflect cross-cultural influences and a deeper, intuitive visual ‘handwriting’ that is hard to define.

Ground Cloths introduce new materials and processes to Debbie’s practice. For CTRL/Shift she has researched the traditional way of preserving and waterproofing sails and tarpaulins by ‘dressing’ them with linseed oil, wax and red ochre.

Jae Maries

Jae’s Maries’ work ‘Turbulent Seas’ represents the recent history of an English fishing port. The stormy seas suggest the energy and danger of the fishing industry at its peak in the 1950s and then the port’s decline through the successive years.

Sîan Martin

Rolling Out a Carpet for HopeMaterials: Dyed cane and wire, silk and scrim fabrics, acrylic sheets

The inspiration for this textile is a project to re-hydrate the desert areas of Africa. Planting a corridor of saplings to draw water to the surface aims to control desert encroachment. The shift fromdesert to fertile land is an initiative that is a metaphor for the artist’s aims of rejuvenating creative thinking and using new materials and processes to tell the story of change.

Jane McKeating

Nine days a weekMaterials:Found handkerchiefs of various materials. Mixed hand threads and fabric pigments.Techniques:Hand stitch and hand paining on found objects alongside fabric manipulation

Margaret is 82 and has dementia Henry died in 2005, but Peggy and Harry continue to explore the world together daily, searching for new flowers and inventing new colours.

This interactive work by Sumi is inspired by the book: UNBUILDING (by David Macauley) and a Lego set to build the UN Building. The entire installation is made by controlling and shifting four discarded recycled zinc sheets with thread-like drawings (warp/weft) that represent the fabric of the building.

Shuna Rendel

“Brushstrokes” is Shuna Rendel’s response to Jae Maries’ original work “Turbulent Seas”. Shuna has developed the quality of drawing in Jae’s piece and has used natural materials from field and garden to create an eight piece series made up of individual but linked responses.

Vanessa Rolf

Breathe is a new work by artist Vanessa Rolf that explores her response to loss; aiming to capture emotions that are hard to articulate despite their universal nature. The work continues to reference cartographic imagery, extending the artist’s exploration into landscape and reflect human experiences.

Sue Stone

Inspired by a visit to Greenpoint, Brooklyn the emphasis in this piece shifts slightly away from people, and towards place and contains a multitude of references from a specific place, New York and a specific time period 21/12/16 to 3/01/17.

New Directions In Textile Art

An exhibition from The 62 Group of Textile Artists, produced in partnership withMidlands Art Centre Birmingham.

An exhibition fromThe 62 Group of Textile Artists produced in partnership withMidlands Art Centre